Allen Jones artworks and editions

Allen Jones is a British artist and is considered an icon of British Pop Art. Born in Southampton, Jones settled in London in 1955 and studied at Hornsey College of Art and the Royal College of Art. Over the course of his artistic career, the painter created an influential and unique oeuvre of paintings, drawings, sculptures and lithographs. His artworks and editions are always sexually charged. Due to alleged misogynistic depictions and in his direct referentiality to bondage sadomaso practices, the artist's work met with much criticism.

After his academic training in painting, he initially switched to sculpture, as it offered him the possibility of a true, physical presence of his formal language. Early on, themes such as sexuality and eroticism found expression in his works. The British artist caused a scandal in the late 1960s with his fiberglass sculptures, which show women in pornographic poses as "pieces of furniture" and question the boundary between design and art. Fascinated by the female form, the artist repeatedly had to justify himself against feminists and affirmed that he himself was a feminist. In no way does he celebrate the degradation of women, but rather wants to address the taboo of sexuality in his artworks and editions. It is up to the viewer to look at Jones' models in voyeuristic desire or to keep a critical distance to the works.

Allen Jones quickly gained fame as an "erotic pop provocateur". His fetish objects are now celebrated as "classics" of 1960s and 70s art. Countless international solo exhibitions and retrospectives have been devoted to the British artist's ambiguous work.